Palm oil, the cheapest edible oil in the international market, has been giving other oils a run for their money and hence it is the focus of attack by its competitors, rightly or wrongly. No matter how hard countries like US, Canada and other industrialized countries try to compete with Palm oil with their own oils like Soy, Canola etc, it has been a losing battle as evidenced by the preference of food industries world over for palm oil because of its thermal stability and functional advantages besides the low price. Indonesia and Malaysia together account for more than 40 million tons of global production and both being forest rich countries, the campaign against them revolves around the prevalent production practices which have been termed "unsustainable" but with least conviction. The western inspired Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil is to day in the forefront denigrating this oil, obviously to gain market advantage for their own oils. The latest attempts in Australia to even force Palm oil using food manufacturers to declare on the label whether the oil used is sustainable or not is a clear violation of WTO regulations which does not allow TBT for discriminating against any product in the world trade.
"Aimed at consumers, politicians and the food industry, the ongoing campaign in Australia to single out palm oil as a food ingredient, revolves around the Food Standards Amendment (Truth in Labelling Palm Oil) Bill 2010.If the Bill is passed, there will be new labelling standards for producers, manufacturers and distributors of foods containing palm oil. The proposed change in law is based on the argument that "palm oil production results in extensive deforestation". Said the explanatory memorandum to the Bill: "As the major producers are Malaysia and Indonesia, this has led to the removal of wildlife habitat and has placed many species, including the endangered orang utan, at risk." The purpose of the legislation, according to the memorandum, is "to ensure that consumers are provided with clear, accurate information about the inclusion of palm oil in foods, and to encourage the use of certified sustainable palm oil in order to promote the protection of wildlife habitat".
Watching the above "circus', one is reminded of similar campaign against Brazil which was accused of environmental crime for expanding its sugar cane cultivation as a part of a long term program to cut down consumption of fossil fuel vis ethanol production. Obviously such programs are likely to hurt the Corn industry which also produces ethanol and Fructose syrup, competing with Brazilian sugar cane industry. When Asian countries pioneered the Palm oil industry with the hard sweat of their people, there were organized attempts by the West to denigrate the oil as unhealthy with potential for causing Heart disease and other related dangers and it was a hard fought battle by the palm growing countries deploying western nutritionists to demolish the insinuations. Now that the oil has become the most sought after edible oil or biofuel, new road blocks are sought to be created by calling Palm oil production environmentally unsustainable! As sellers have no choice, the Palm oil producers have to listen to the grievances of the buyers, however "unsustainable" their stand many be! The critics of Palm oil do not seem to have any conscience while arguing out their case because of the impact of unjustified action on the economy of those countries which rely heavily on export of Palm oil. More than 2 million people find employment in Palm oil production, besides thousands of small growers with limited resources to dance to the tune of the Western countries, which seem to be shifting the "goal post" from time to time, the obvious purpose being finding one or the other fault with Palm oil. It is time that producers of Palm oil start a charm offensive to counteract the bad publicity with scientific evidence that Palm oil plantations are not that bad as being made out to be by the vested interests.
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